Gmail Scam – Fake Phishing Messages about Your Google Account

Gmail scams where the scammer sends fake phishing messages are not new. While a basic Gmail phishing message is easily identifiable, some more sophisticated messages are subtle and cleverly disguised, making them hard to catch. However, whatever the level of sophistication, there are common characteristics between these fake emails – the goal is to steal your login info and ultimately get access to your bank account or credit card.

One type of email phishing scam that is doing the rounds, which you should watch out for, is an email that comes into your inbox, purporting to be Google. As you might know, it is much easier to open an email from a trusted brand and click the link without a second thought. On the other hand, when the email is coming from an unknown website or vendor, your red flags will be triggered.

The latest scam as reported by KiviTV includes convincing legitimate-looking messages which look exactly like Google email formats. In one email, the scammer informs you about your Gmail account which has exceeded the allowed storage quota. In another variation of this scam, the message might be different, telling you that your email has been delayed or deferred. The goal of this trick is to scare you into taking immediate action to restore your Gmail service. You will click the link in panic, but alas, the link will take you to a malware site or download viruses on your computer.

Using a bit of common sense, like checking the amount of free space left on your email might save you from this phishing attack, but since the messages look so real and convincing, you will be tempted to click the link, besides most people have little time for investigations.

How to Identify Fake Phishing Messages

By doing a little investigation before you click a link inside a Gmail message, you can save yourself from phishing attacks:

–Check where the mail is coming from, the dumb scammer will use a clearly fake email domain, the sophisticated scammer may cloak or disguise the fake domain and the advanced scammer will use a genuine google.com domain to trick you >>> Read This

–To reveal fake domains that are hidden by hyperlinks in the message body, hover your mouse over the hyperlink or URL to see the true domain. The hyperlink will be google.combut the true domain will be something different e.g. googlesupportheadquarters.com

Fake URL – Hover Mouse Over Link To See True Destination

Fake URL – Hover Your Mouse Over Link To See True Destination

Genuine URL – Hover To See True Destination

–Compare the email with a real Google email, you might notice some small differences between their design and formatting.

–Grammar errors and typos are one of the common giveaways for scam emails.

–USB Security Key : This is a surefire way of protecting yourself against phishing messages and fake websites.